I've just been offered a spare set of 436m's with both a set of bridgestones and a set of winter tyres for a crazy cheap price (£300!) but they don't come with TPMS. What's the implications of putting this spare set on with the winter tyres without TPMS?

What I'll probably do is get the winters put onto my rims so they will have TPMS and keeping the spares without for now but now I've thought about the question I'm curious as to what issues would occur!

I ran all last year with winters without TPMS sensors. You get a warning on the iDrive as you start the car that you simply "OK" with the control knob and then the car flashes the little orange dash warning symbol for about 30 seconds after which it simply stays on.

I got used to it pretty quick and you soon forget about it. I'm getting new winter tyres this year though so have got some sensors to fit with them, but it's no big deal to run without.

I'm pretty sure you can activate Sport+ and turn TC off when the TPMS warning flashes up. Half the reason for disabling TC is to allow a little spin of the wheels in icy conditions without the power being cut. I ran winter wheels and tyres last year without TPMS sensors and as mentioned above you just acknowledge the warning on start up and that's it.

Just be mindful that if you need to take the car for an MOT then the warning will be a failure.

Local tyre and exhaust place I use. One of their regulars came in and upgraded alloys and tyres and never got round to collecting the old 436m's with bridgestones (presumably run flats). shop finally got hold of him saying there's a potential buyer and a deal was struck As an extra sweetener they said they'd throw in the 225/40/18 winters they have had 4 of since last year with only around 3k miles on them.

If you have a garage or somewhere appropriate to store the tyres when not in use, swapping the tyres over isn't too bad an idea, you just have to accept the fitting costs twice a year to switch to and from them.

I got separate wheels simply for the convenience of changing them when I want, and also I can have a square setup which means I can rotate the tyres and maybe get a couple of extra seasons out of them. Also when I sell the car I can sell the winters probably for close to what I paid for them.